Northern Sarkārs

Northern Sarkārs, Sarkārs also spelled Circārs, group of four, later five or six, sarkārs (districts) into which the Afghan emperor Shēr Shah of Sūr (ruled 1540–45) divided his empire. They corresponded roughly to the several districts of present-day northeastern Andhra Pradesh state, India, along the coast of the Bay of Bengal.

The cession of the Northern Sarcārs by Ṣalābat Jang, the nizam (ruler) of Hyderabad, to the French East India Company in 1753 marks the beginning of their common history. They were occupied by the British in 1758, eventually becoming part of what was then the Madras Presidency. After Indian independence from Britain in 1947, the region first was part of Madras and then Andhra states before the creation of Andhra Pradesh state in 1956.